Over 4.9 billion people are using social media, which is over half of the world’s population. For businesses, an effective social media presence is a must. But what makes a social media presence effective?

Visual imagery is the foundation of any decent social media presence and has an important relationship with social media content and marketing strategy.

With that in mind, what are the specific benefits of using graphic design in your social media strategy?

­Attention Span

Recent studies show that most people’s attention span has gone down to around 8-seconds, with scientists recording that the human brain can process images in 13 milliseconds.

To take advantage of this, it’s advisable to use vibrant, eye-catching visuals wherever possible on social media. In-fact, the statistics support this, showing that posts with visuals achieve 180% more engagement.

Visual communication is an effective way to articulate your brand message, and audience’s will judge you very quickly by your ‘tone’, both in text and imagery. This is why using visuals wherever relevant is important.

Brand Recognition

Think of a popular brand you know well, for example, Nike, or McDonalds. What is the first thing you think of? It may be the product (such as trainers, or a burger), but for lots of people, the colours and logo will stick with you, and you will remember those visual details.

Your logo and brand colours may be the first impression a customer has of your brand, so importantly, they need to be memorable.

Professionalism

Sophisticated graphic design that accompanies text portrays your company as established in its sector. A consistent colour scheme (for memorability), professionally captured images (most iPhone cameras suffice), repeated font usage (font families for variation) are just some ways you can ensure your company comes across as professional. If your audience knows what to expect from your posts, you can build up a long-term relationship and returning business.

On the other hand, it’s worth ensuring your graphic design efforts aren’t harming your business – mismatched text that’s hard to read, displeasing colour palettes and spelling mistakes are easy ways to portray a negative message about your business, so you’ll want to avoid that.

Shareability and Engagement

Visual images increase shareability and engagement. There is a demand for interactive content – which is displayed in the increasing use of visual apps like TikTok and Instagram. Visual imagery, including video, is more likely to receive likes, comments, shares and even followers. Humorous content such as ‘memes’ and ‘reactions’ are commonly reshared, so consider this as part of your social strategy (of course, while remaining relevant).

Persuasion

Visuals may encourage your audience to read more on your pages and website. This is beneficial if you’re informing them about news in your sector, or how to use a product you offer.

Information doesn’t need to be boring; it can be vivid in text through visual graphics, articulating in a way most people can understand.

In Summary

Graphic design and social media posting goes hand-in-hand. Clearly, if you’re looking to improve your social media post performance, making it visual is the way to go.

To illustrate the point above, we made a graphic design version of all the information discussed in this article. Let us know what you think by commenting or getting in touch at info@paramountmedia.co.uk